Press Releases

Budapest, November 8, 2016 12:00

In many cases, managers of small and medium-sized businesses use modern infocommunications solutions for private purposes first and only later for their business activities – a special unreported section of the latest research of Magyar Telekom reveals. Based on the frequency of use of the individual solutions, there are significant differences both from regional aspects and the level of education of the respondents. On one hand, SMBs are ready for the infocommunications environment, while on the other hand there are still areas of further improvement, for example in using private applications for business purposes.elekom has reached an agreement with the trade unions on its proposed  salary increase measures for Magyar Telekom Plc. and T-Systems Magyarország Zrt.

From the couch to the office chair
Significant part of the managers of small and medium businesses use modern infocommunications solutions in their private life first, and only later they apply these solutions for their business activities as well – revealed by a survey conducted by BellResearch and Magyar Telekom. This is the case despite the fact that most of the Hungarian SMBs are aware that information technology improvements may help the operation of their business from both business development and cost efficiency points of view. So they are mature from the aspect of what could be used, but what infocommunications solutions they actually use at home or for business is a different question.

Age is not the decisive factor
Differences between private and business use is well shown by the fact that nearly one and a half times more SMB managers use smart phones or tablets for their correspondence at home than in their workplace. E-mail as a communications form is used for private purposes by almost all company managers with tertiary education during their everyday lives, but this is not necessarily so for their businesses. According to the survey, however, the level of education of the company manager is also important: the higher the education of the given manager, the higher probability that he would use advanced infocommunications devices – for both private and business purposes. The survey showed significant differences also based on the geographical location of the businesses – the more developed a region is, the more intense is the use of modern solutions by the companies; age, however, plays a considerable less important role in the approach to digitization.

“Results of the survey clearly show that despite being aware of the opportunities offered by digitization, and being able to use modern infocommunications tools, managers of the Hungarian small and medium sized businesses do not always use these solutions for their business, too. It is also obvious that decision-makers would not put to service information technology solutions they do not know about, so it is not only the responsibility, but also business interest of the operators to offer digital education for small companies” – Péter Lakatos, Chief Commercial Officer SMB of Magyar Telekom.

Frame 1:

Bundled service may present an alternative

Magyar Telekom launched its new business offer under the name Magenta 1 Business, where mobile and fixed services, as well as infocommunications solutions offered by the operator can be used together, under more favorable conditions. The offer includes every infocommunications service indispensable for the companies to operate smoothly (mobile phone, mobile internet, fixed internet, as well as IT solutions). The discount package represents a number of benefits for the subscribers: entrepreneurs can purchase telecommunications and information technology services necessary for their business from a single service provider, for a favorable monthly fee that includes all the mentioned services. Subscribers of Magenta 1 Business are granted dedicated customer service on the business telephone customer service or may administer their affairs more conveniently, using the online chat function. In order to optimally assemble the service package, our customers may not only request for new service elements, but also – as it is most often the case – to include their existing and proven services to the package. With the information technology service, free access is granted to the virus protection service ensuring the safety of the data, as well as to the Office 365 Basic Business Version offering legal software and business correspondence. Detailed description of services available for Magenta 1 Business and the conditions of using them can be found here:  www.telekom.hu/magenta1-business

Frame 2:

Residents of the Észak-Dunántúl region and with tertiary education are at an advantage

Based on the home and business uses of modern infocommunications tools, the research showed clear differences to the advantage of the former: for example 73 percent of SMB managers with tertiary education use document management applications during their work, whereas the measured ratio is much higher – 81 percent – for private persons. The case is similar for correspondence conducted using smart phones or tablets, where the same ratios are 44 and 61 percent for the managers with college or university education. It is also interesting that while e-mail as a communications tool is used for personal purposes by almost all company managers with tertiary education (97 percent), the same ratio is only 83 percent in business terms.With respect to the penetration of the modern infocommunications tools, the differences based on education are even more obvious on the basis of the results of the survey. Document management applications for example are used 73 percent of company managers with higher education during their work; this ratio is 43 percent for managers with secondary education and only 28 percent for those without even secondary education. The survey revealed significant differences also from regional point of view. Document management applications, for example  73 and 81 percent of company managers use for work and private purposes respectively in the northwest part of the country mostly demonstrating the best results, whereas only 49 and 58 penetration was measured in the southwest region.On the other hand it is remarkable that regarding the process of digitization according to the individual age classes, the differences are much smaller, than on regional level, or based on education. The difference between the results of the youngest and the oldest age classes is typically only a few points: for example the results scatter between 67 and 73 percent regarding the use of e-mail at work, whereas the range is 6 percent also for the private use (with 86 and 92 percent result).